


Home

by GreyLoveliCat



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Be prepared to perish, Character Death, Flashbacks, Langst, M/M, Minor Character Death, Multi, Slow Burn, Visions, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-19 18:42:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15516165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreyLoveliCat/pseuds/GreyLoveliCat
Summary: Emotions are like flames, they burn hot with desire until you are burned. Then they slowly die down and burn out. Sometimes emotions can be overwhelming like the ocean in a storm, drowning us in its depths. They can also be a cool breeze in the spring, easy and relaxing. No matter what they are, a dream or a nightmare, they are still yours.





	1. Chapter 1

“I am so sorry, Lance,” expressed Allura. Lance understood why she said no, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt any less. He developed genuine feelings for her over the months of knowing her, but she has feelings for another. So, Lance turns away, straightens his back, sighs, turns back to Allura and smiles.  
“Thank you. Thank you for listening to me and being my friend,” his breath hitches before his calms down again, “I’m sorry if this caused any problems for you.” Then he walked away. Alora reached out to stop him but hesitated knowing no matter what she did she could not comfort him. Not how he has comforted her numerous times, and that’s when she started to cry, right when the door closed behind him. A door she will never be able to reopen.

 

Lance heard the quiet sob as the door closed behind him, and as much as he wanted to turn back around and go hug her and tell her it’s okay it won’t change anything. He was brokenhearted and she was hurt for having to reject a friend. So he continued to walk back to his room. Everything seems to blur past him. From a slow pace, to a brisk walk, to a sprint, he tried to run from the pain. “Lance!” He abruptly stopped at the sound of his name. It was Pidge, and Hunk right behind her(them).  
“Slow down for a second. What’s the rush for? Need to find Allura,” she wiggles her eyebrows at this trying to be funny. It wasn’t. Hunk joins in. “Oh, LOnce-”  
“... up,” Lance mumbles. His breathing picks up a tick. “What? Didn’t hear you, Lance. Mind speaking up for the whole class,” Pidge retorts snarkily, chuckling to herself. Lance snaps. He storms up to Pidge and towers over and bites each word, “I said ‘Shut up.’” He walks away leaving both Hunk and Pidge thunderstruck that the easy going Lance got mad.

Everything seems to be going so fast. One minute, Lance is joking with Allura, the next, a tsunami worth of emotions are overwhelming him. When Lance finally makes it to his room, he is on the verge of hyperventilating. He had reason enough to lock the door upon entering, but right now reason is escaping. He’s shaking and his breathing won’t slow down. He falls to his knees and bends over and puts both hands into his hair in hope of self comfort. It wasn’t working. He begins rocking back and forth, trying anything to calm himself down, but right now he is teetering on a full blown panic attack. And nothing is keeping it from happening. Lance is pulling his hair and wracking his brain to think of a happy memory but everything is dark and it hurts.  
He starts having coughing fits and can’t seem to breathe. He struggles to make it to the bathroom before he heaves into the toilet. His stomach was already empty before this happened but now even more so. His throat hurt from all the coughing and throwing up and his eyes stung from all the crying. He stays on the bathroom floor for another thirty doboshes for his body to settle before getting up to brush his teeth. Lance looks into the mirror and sees he’s sweaty, blotchy, and now sporting major dark circles.  
As he is brushing his teeth he tortures himself by looking at his reflection and how pathetic he looks. He thinks about how Allura and Lotor are probably working on the ship together. How she prefers Lotor over him. He washes out his mouth and heads to his closet to change into his paladin armor. He looks himself over and sees the armor looks a little large on him right now, so he adjusts the settings on it so it appears a proper fit. He puts on his helmet, leaves his room, and starts walking to the training deck. He looks down at his hands and sees he is still shaking.  
Lance knows he should probably rest, but honestly rest right now rest seems a little out of reach. He’s glad he doesn’t run into anybody on the way there because he still wants to be alone and he’s still mad at Pidge and Hunk. When he reaches the training deck, he summons his bayard and starts the training drones at level one.  
The drones begin moving in a slow sequence and shooting each down was easy enough. Predictability was one of the downfalls of using the drones, but it was better than nothing at all. The next level began two doboshes after starting the first. Three more drones were added and speed was increased. Another couple doboshes fly by and level three is started.  
After about fifteen doboshes, Lance decides to take a break before he begins level five. Drinking some much needed water he continues to walk around so he doesn’t cool down too much. Training has helped him calm down and mentally organize himself. He is no longer shaking from having a panic attack, now it’s from physical exhaustion. But it wasn’t bad, it helped him prioritize and become a better paladin, in his mind at least. He probably needs to start training more often, he needs to become more reliable. He’s the right hand, the red paladin, both Shiro and Allura need him to be better. Allura… Lance sets down his water and begins the next level.  
As soon as the level began he knew it was much different from the rest. It was no longer small drones that shot at him moving at fast speeds. It was the A.I. that Keith always fought. Deciding it is probably best to change weapons, Lance switches to his broadsword. He needed practice anyway. He gets into stance and waits for the count down. Three, two, one, start. The A.I. advances and Lance is barely able react in time with his shield before being knocked down. He scrambles back up so it doesn’t attack while he is down and tries to put some distance between him and the A.I. before it attacks again. It attacks and Lance is able to parry one attack before having to use the shield again. The A.I. keeps pushing Lance back until it side swipes his feet with its staff and knocks lance down on his back and tases his chest. Lance groans in pain. “End training session,” Lance speaks out before it could do anything else. The A.I. stops and falls through the floor.  
Lance rolls onto his side and holds his chest where the A.I. slammed its staff. It hurts so much that it begins to be a little hard to breathe, so Lance sits up to take off his upper armor and his compression shirt. He looks down at his chest and sees the forming of a rather large bruise. Great, just what I needed, Lance thinks sarcastically. He grabs his water and sips on it before lying back down on the cool floor. He closes his eyes and starts taking deep breaths. His chest still hurts but keeps going despite the pain. Before he knows it he falls asleep.

 

Lance is at home with his mom in the kitchen when he opens his Galaxy Garrison acceptance letter. They both start smiling when they read it. It lets them know that a week before the semester starts, two weeks from now, that he will receive a place ticket to fly out to Arizona and stay at the boarding school. He will be boarding at the school for three to six years with permission to go home for holidays or serious family matters. Lance and his mother hug in the kitchen when they finish the letter. "I’m going to miss you, mi amor," his mother says to him. "Y tu," mama, Lance whispers.  
The next two weeks were used to pack and make sure everything is ready for the flight over. The Garrison gave a list of things of stuff he must bring and a list of stuff that were not aloud. Days go back and the house becomes more tense and becomes hard to talk to one another. Two days before Lance’s scheduled flight he gets into a fight with his father and Lance walks out of the house. His older sister runs to the door calling out to him to come back, but he was already down the driveway turning onto the street.  
Lance walks for thirty minutes aimlessly before stopping and turning back to go home. He lived in the country so he didn’t run into anyone nor did anyone drive past him either. His fight with his father wasn’t abnormal. They fought occasionally, but nothing major. They were both too stubborn to back down, but that doesn’t mean that it didn’t suck any less. When Lance walked back into his house it was already dark and all the lights were out except one lamp that was in the living room. His mother was sitting on a recliner next to it, she looks up and smiles at him when she hears him walk through the door. She gets up and meets him halfway to give him a hug. "Lo siento, mama. I shouldn’t have walked out. Lo siento." She starts rubbing his back and shushes him. "No más sientos, Lancelot. Estas bien. Just promise me you’ll be safe at the Garrison. Contact me as often as you can to let me know how you’re doing, okay? Can you promise me that, mi amor?" She pulls away to look him the eyes while she says this. Lance nods back, "si, mama. Te amo." She smiles and pulls him back into a hug, "I love you too, my Lancelot."

 

Lance gasps awake hugging his chest. He tries to remember his mother’s hug just for a little while longer. He misses her so much that his eyes start to tear up. He wishes there was no war, no Voltron, he wishes he was back on Earth to see her. But he has a feeling that is not going to happen for a very long time. Lance starts to stands and up and picks up his stuff from the floor. When everything is gathered he walks out of the training room, and not even a tick later he quite literally walks into Coran.  
“Number three! Are you alright,” Coran catches Lance as he practically trips. Coran studies Lance physical appearance for a tick. He notices that he looks a little paler than he did yesterday or even earlier today, he has dark circles under his eyes as if hasn’t slept well for days, and lastly, and large bruise on his chest that looks rather fresh. “Lance, let’s go to the med bay and get you checked out. And you can talk to me if you would like, but I’m not forcing you.” Lance weakly nods and follows closely behind Coran.  
Coran also notices from Lance’s appearance that he has lost weight. What could have happened to have made him so stressed? Coran looks up from Lance and continues walking, as they pass the mess hall he looks inside to see if Hunk is there. He was as he hoped. “Lance, do you want anything to eat? I can ask Hunk to make you something to eat. Something small?” As if on cue, Lance’s stomach growls and he flushes. Lance looks away and nods. Coran smiles endearingly at the young paladin and walks away to ask Hunk to make something quick.  
When Coran leaves, Lance waits outside the mess hall patiently. His exhaustion has really caught up with him that he feels like if he closed his eyes or set his head down now he would fall asleep immediately. Today had been a really long day for Lance that is for sure. And maybe something to eat and some sleep might help. Lance looks up when he hears a couple people walking down the hall in his direction. They turn the corner and he sees it is Lotor and Allura. He freezes when he makes eye contact with Allura. So does Allura, but she looks away first and continues talking with Lotor as they pass him Lotor stops to look at Lance.  
“Are you alright, Lance? Were you training,” he asks. Lance looks up at him a little shocked that he would ask him anything at all. They were after all, pining after the same person. “Yeah, I’m fine. I was training with my sword and at a higher level than I’m used to so I was unprepared. A little sore and tired, but besides that I’m well,” Lance responds. “Well if you ever want a training partner and I’m not busy, feel more than free to ask I’d be more than happy to parry.” “I’ll that into consideration, thank you.” At that, Lotor turns away and Allura follows shortly behind. She keeps looking at Lance hoping he would look up but he never did so she walked away not looking back.  
After a moment, Lance looks up and watches them walk away and when he could no longer see or hear them he lets go of the breath he was holding and slides down the wall and sits on the floor. That hurt more than he thought it would. What made it worse was that Lotor was actually nice and considerate to him. He wishes he was snarky and evil so he would have a reason to hate him. But to no avail. Lance hears a sound to his left and looks up to see Hunk looking down at him awkwardly.  
Hunk shifted uncomfortably under Lance’s stare. He looked like we wanted to say something but didn’t know how to say it. He just kept switching from one foot to the other and it was starting to make Lance irritated. “I’m still mad just so you know, but at this point if you’re just going to get uncomfortable I’d rather you not say anything at all,” Lance stated pointedly. It made Hunk flinch. He probably thought Lance would forgive him if he made a attempt to apologize. He guessed wrong. “I’m sorry, I was just going alo-,” Lance cut him off. “Along with the flow? I wish you wouldn’t. You do realize I have feelings right? We are supposed to be best friends. I mean, man, I know I flirt a lot but that does not mean that when I have genuine feelings for someone that,” Lance sighs and shakes his head, “you know what. Never mind. Tell Coran I went to my room.”  
Hunk called after Lance but he didn’t turn back. He didn’t stop walking until he got to his room. Even with the hunger and the pain from his chest Lance just didn’t care. He wished he had someone to talk to instead of having to deal with this on his own. But even if they were here to talk, they probably wouldn’t care as well. Because, Lance felt like he was easily overlooked.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The soft sounds of water brushing up on the sandy beach, the sound of seagulls in the gentle breeze, and the feeling of perfect sunlight on your skin. This is it, this is Lance’s favorite place on Earth. Lance gets up from where he is sitting, grabs his snorkel mask and heads out to the ocean. Once he’s out in the water he feels most at peace. Everything just feels… right. The tropical life ten feet below him. The shark cubs playfully swimming by the fish just to scare them away. The small waves flowing past him. The sun rays beaming through the water in just the right way where everything looks perfect.

Omega Shield

 

“Fire up that power, Pidge!”

“Shield’s up!”

“What’s going on with the plates?” Lance watches as the shield starts losing power almost immediately after they are turned on. All the power that was distributed evenly throughout the shield was suddenly surging to the cracked plate Allura and him fixed. Lance is instantly aware what is about to happen, he yells out Allura’s name to get her attention while he head dives in to push her out of the way before it’s too late. Then pain. So much of it. Both him and Red through their connection, could feel each others as well as their own simultaneously.   
White hot. If Lance could describe what he was feeling in that moment it would be those two words. But Lance couldn’t say much less think those two words. He was screaming from the voltage that was being blasted through him and Red. So much so, that anyone would be surprised to see that he is alive enough to scream through the pain. And pain is a mild term. But next, all was black and the sound of beach waves.

 

Lance opens his eyes and looks out into the horizon and into the blue coastal waters of Varadero beach in Cuba. The soft sounds of water brushing up on the sandy beach, the sound of seagulls in the gentle breeze, and the feeling of perfect sunlight on your skin. This is it, this is Lance’s favorite place on Earth. Lance gets up from where he is sitting, grabs his snorkel mask and heads out to the ocean. Once he’s out in the water he feels most at peace. Everything just feels… right. The tropical life ten feet below him. The shark cubs playfully swimming by the fish just to scare them away. The small waves flowing past him. The sun rays beaming through the water in just the right way where everything looks perfect.   
He continues to swim around for another twenty minutes before going back to shore. As he is walking back to where his stuff is seated he looks up at the sky and notices storm clouds are coming. I guess now would be a good time to go home, Lance thinks to himself. As he is packing up his stuff he feels like he is forgetting something but brushes it off as nothing important.   
While trekking up the hill to get to the main road so he can walk home he hears a girl call his name behind him. He turns around and sees no one there who could be possibly calling him. He shrugs and continues walking. He feels some water fall on his shoulder and looks up to see it starts to rain. Knowing that he begins briskly jogging home.   
Still having that weird feeling as if he is forgetting something, he starts to run through his day. What did he do this morning? What was for breakfast? When did he leave? Thinking back he doesn’t remember anything. He doesn’t remember looking at the forecast this morning. He doesn’t remember seeing his mother, father, abuelita, or any of his siblings. Lance slows to a stop as the rain continues to pour down. Not remembering anything, that’s weird right?  
He pauses because he feeling eyes on him. He jerks around to find himself face to face with a rather large cat. A lion to be specific. It seemed to almost have a slight reddish glow around it. Lance and the lion maintain eye contact what felt like minutes but was only a couple seconds. Lance felt a connection with the male lion. A deep bond almost. He reaches out to the lion’s head and the feline puts his face lovingly into Lance’s hand. A deep rumble could be heard reverberating from the lion’s chest and this makes Lance smile. You need to go back, my Paladin. Lance snatches his hand from the lion as if he touched something hot.   
“Wha-,” The lion walks forward and starts rubbing against Lance in an affectionate way. 'You cannot stay here, my young Paladin. The Princess is trying to save you and she will lose vitality doing so. You must go back. I can guide you but you must act quickly. Your time is running out.' Everything begins rushing back. He… died. Lance’s pulse quickens and his breath cuts short. Everything around his starts to fade away until it’s only him and the red lion. 'Lance…' He says almost apologetically, 'We must go. Follow me.' Lance knows he doesn’t have time to panic so he follows his lion. Follows until the darkness around him starts having light, and realizing the light he sees is himself glowing. He follows his lion until is is too blinding.  
He blinks. Shock evident in his eyes, he looks to his left to find Allura tearfully smiling down at him. He gratefully smiles back up at her, “You saved me.” 'She saved us,' the red lion corrected. “I owed you one.” Lance continues looking up at Allura, and for a moment only a moment, he could see a young girl crying while running after her father. It felt like a fleeting memory, because as soon as it came it was gone. “I’ll take you back to your lion and see if Hunk needs help with anything else, okay?” Lance pauses, “and I know this is going to sound really bad, especially right now, but can you do me a huge favor and not say anything about this to the others.”

 

“Thank you for reminding us what it means to be Galra. Vrepit Sa!”  
“Vrepit Sa! Man that’s weird to say.”  
Hunk and Pidge help finish fixing what they can on the Omega Shield so the Galra who are stationed here won’t be in immediate harm's way and have time to get supplies to properly fix the shield. Pidge mentions to Allura that Shiro had a weird almost manic episode when they were trying to get the shield up and running so, of course knowing Allura, she started fussing over him. He tried to shoo her away but failed when he grunted in pain because of his head.  
'You are worried about him.' Red stated more than asked. It’s true. He is worried about him. 'I am. He seems different. He- wait. We are a lot further away and we can still communicate. That’s… odd.' Lance tried to keep his face as neutral as possible so no one would assume anything was up. He was already kind of by himself. He chose a spot in the engineering room where he could watch everything, still be in view and ear shot if he was needed, but secluded enough where no one would just walk up to him and start a conversation. It was perfect as a sharpshooter. And it was perfect for him because he wanted to be alone without anyone actually knowing.  
'I am assuming it is from when we died. Unfortunate that it had to happen that way though. But I am most glad that I can communicate with you much easier than before, my young paladin. Feel more than free to confide in or ask me anything.' Lance breathed out a smile when he heard, can he say heard when everything took place in his head, what Red said. 'I appreciate that, Red. Since Keith left… never mind.' 'Lance, it is fine to talk about the emotions you are feeling. I know you and Keith had time to become closer to one another then that was torn away from you when he left. But one thing I can say for certain, he wanted to become closer to you. Both of you are very similar and that is why he felt an affinity with you. Probably more than you think. When we see him again, I urge you to speak with him. And if you need help I will only be a thought away, please remember that.'  
“Lance!” Lance’s head shot up to find who called his name. It was Shiro. “It’s time to go.” Lance nodded and got up and jogged towards the group. He felt static between his ears, almost as if Red was waiting for him to say something back. But what could he say? They can hear each other’s thoughts. Lance put on his helmet when he walked up to Red. 'I will remember that.' When Red purred back at him he assumed that was his form of smiling.

 

As they arrived, Lance’s first goal was to go take off his armor and take a shower. Pidge seconded that, as did everyone else. And as soon as they landed that’s what everyone did. They made a beeline straight to their respective rooms. When Lance arrived to his room, what he actually wanted to do was sleep, but he still stripped himself of his armor and got into a hot shower. In the end it was definitely worth it. His muscles relaxed as the hot water smoothed the cramps that built up during the chaos. He stood underneath the water for a couple of minutes just to soak it in. He silently meditated and let his concerns run down the drain. At least for now, when they re crop up he will deal with them then. When he was done meditating he began his normal shower routine of doing a gentle face cleanser, a nice shampoo, to a deep conditioner. When he washed his body he made sure to get all the sweat and grime that built up over the hours of fighting. He reminded himself that he would have to clean his armor later so it doesn’t smell as well. 

After Lance was finished with his shower, he walked into his room and put on his sleeping robe about to collapse into bed when he heard a knock on his door. He groaned as he walked to the door to open it. Lance was kind of shocked to see the older Altean here, “Coran! What are you doing here.” When he almost told Allura he liked her he was immediately shot down before he got the chance to do so. It hurt, bad. Just when he finally had the courage to tell her, she chose someone else. Coran saw him after that whole ordeal. He saw when Lance was sick to his stomach and depressed about the outcome of the, lack there of, confession. Coran tried to help, but Lance walked away at the last moment. So now that Coran is here, Lance kinda figured what he wants to talk about but wanted to avoid it as much as possible.

 

The Altean gave the young Cuban boy a knowing look. It was obvious that he cared for the boy, he treated him like he was his son. Lance was very appreciative of that, he hasn’t seen his family in months, even before they went into space. The Garrison was a boarding school and all his family lived in Cuba. So there was bound to be a lack of communication when they lived so far away. Even more so now; now there was no communication or visitation. Lance looked back up at the older man, “do you want to come in?” They have a much needed talk awaiting them. Lance closed the door behind Coran once he walked in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, how was the new chapter? Leave a comment below, por favor! And because I love you guys, here is a snip bit of something I'm thinking about working on. Hope you enjoy!!
> 
> “Damn it! Why the fuck? Shit! Fuck! God! Damn it!” Profanities continued to spill for his mouth as he slammed his fist against the wall. Rage filled his heart but depression filled his soul and mind. Nothing seemed to trigger this outburst but nothing also seemed to be the reason. He felt angry because he’s depressed and depressed because he feels alone. When he was finished punching the wall he crouched down fisting and pulling at his hair with hot tears rolling down his cheeks. His body trembled as a sob escaped his throat. 'Why do I have to be alone? Why does everyone leave?'   
>  It had been a month since the announcement from the Garrison. This disappearance of Samuel Holt, Matthew Holt, and Takashi Shirogane had been due to pilot error and so presumed dead, or so was told to the public. But no matter what Keith could not believe that, he absolutely couldn’t. Because if he did, he would really be alone. Shiro was the only one who pulled him out of a dark place, out of the boys’ home.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The memories are still playing in his head over and over, like a broken reel. He felt them, he felt all what King Alfor was feeling and if he was honest with himself, they were familiar. Not everything of course, but the willingness to protect at the expense of one’s own life, that is what is familiar. Lance looked down at his hands and he saw blood. He almost panicked but when he looked again the blood was gone. What more memories is he going to have?

“I’m sorry, Allura. Coran! Get her out of here! Now,” Alfor yelled at Coran over the sound of destruction. Zarkon and the Galra empire was attacking Altea and Alfor had to get as many people off the planet as soon as possible. He already shed his tears for his friends when he watched them get murdered by his once oldest friend, now he had to focus on saving his people. His wife, the queen, was already instructing people where to go, trying to keep things orderly but also trying to hurry for the destruction of their planet could happen any dobosh. Alfor heard a scream over the comms, then static.  
“Alfor,” an unmistakable voice, deep and calm, “come to your wife, I will not say it twice.” Everything seemed to stop, the sounds around him muted, he could only hear his heart thumping. He could feel his chest tighten as many emotions begin to flood him, his breath caught. Thump… thump… thump. He turned and ran out of the control room towards the Red Lion. Everything seems to blur past him, his was pretty sure people were calling to him but he couldn’t stop. ‘Hurry, Alfor. Hurry. Run faster! Run! Faster! Please be okay. Please be okay. Please be okay.’ Alfor could feel the tears threatening to fall but he didn’t care, he needed to run. Run to where the Red Lion was because that is where she would be. His love. He had to get her to safety, he had to get them both to safety.  
He practically pries the Red Lion’s hanger door open only to see a nightmare. The metallic scent hits his nose and he almost gags. Dozens of Alteans sprawled out on the floor, slain. Male, female, young, old, every single one dead. He looked up to see Zarkon holding her by her hair a foot off the floor. She was fighting to get free; kicking and clawing, but nothing lessened the vice grip Zarkon had. He turned his head slightly to make eye contact with Alfor before activating his bayard. They kept eye contact for what felt like eternity, the air between them rigid.  
Alfor could only watch as the sword impaled his wife through her abdomen. His world went stagnant as he watched her crumple to the floor. He lost all strength in his legs and collapsed to his knees. He felt… vacant, empty. He looked down at his hands only to see blood, so much blood. A young Altean child lies in front of him, eyes wide open in terror, and tears staining their cheeks. Alfor squeezes his eyes shut. ‘I’m sorry. If only I was stronger.’ He opens them again to torture himself. He looks around the floor when he sees something, someone, he wished he hadn’t. No. No, please, no. No, no, no, no, no. Coran’s… Coran’s family, his significant other and their child lie lifelessly on the floor along with the others. Alfor sobbed. He cries for the loss of his wife and unborn child, he cries for the child that is in front of him, he cries for Coran’s loss, he cries for Altea.  
Alfor felt Zarkon’s eyes watching him but at the point he no longer had the energy to care. “This is all your fault, Alfor. I told you I was coming and nothing you could do was going to stop that truth. Your people are dead or dying. I can let you join them,” Zarkon expressed, almost sympathetically as he walked towards the Altean, “join your wife and your child.” Alfor’s eyes shot up to Zarkon’s. An accumulation of emotions began to boil, his breathing picked up and his vision started turning red. Time seemed to stop once again. He summoned his bayard and charged Zarkon.  
“My fault,” Alfor screamed, “how is this my fault? You murdered my wife and unborn child right in front of me! You waited till I arrived just to do that!” Their swords collided with a spark. “You psychopath! Were you ever my friend?” Alfor’s once fluid fighting prowess was now dramatically reduced due to rage and desperation. He wildly swung his sword at Zarkon which he parried with ease, almost as if this fight was not worth his effort. And to no one’s surprise, Zarkon knocked Alfor’s sword out of his hands. The Altean King watched the sword skid across the floor, out of reach. Still prepared to fight even without his weapon he turned to face the Galran only to find a luminescent purple sword pointed at his neck. The old king knew what the outcome of this fight was going to be before it started, but he had hoped. The king lost the war, now all that is left is despair.  
“King Alfor! Allura is in the sleeping pod! It’s time to leave, please hurry back to central command so we can leave,” Alfor heard Coran say this over the comms. He smiled to himself. At least one of his girls made it alive.  
“Thank you, Coran. It’s time for you to leave.” Zarkon stiffened realising what happened. The Altean King stalled for time. He lashed out in anger and sliced Alfor’s chest open and stormed off running. Just barely out of the hanger he was summoned by the Druid Witch telling him it was time to leave. Zarkon seethed, he looked at the dying king one last time before he left for good. Alfor vaguely observed him leave as he coughed and spit up blood. He didn’t mind, but he wasn’t going to let his wife be alone even after death. He was crawling over to her when he heard running behind him. He turned to see Coran at the door frame, out of breath. He coughed again.  
The older Altean ran towards his dying king. “Come on, let’s get yo-,” he sucked in a sharp breath when he saw the queen’s lifeless form on the floor. He looked back to his king and saw a man who wished to die. He started to scan the room again to see if there was anyone else he could take with him. He paused when he saw them. He looked back to Alfor whose eyes pleaded for him to leave. “Allura will need you when she wakes again,” Coran stated weakly, he felt his throat get tight as he tried to speak, “I won’t be able to guide her alone.” Alfor gazed at Coran’s face and noted he looked how Alfor felt, physically and emotionally. The king motioned to Coran to help him get to his wife. He collapsed next her and with the last of his strength, he picked her up and cradled her against his chest. He gingerly closed her eyes then looked back up to Coran and nodded. Coran took out the device to transfer Alfor’s memories in to, and the time it took to snap of your fingers, the last King of Altea was gone.

 

Lance felt like he was choking when he woke up. He gasped and clawed at his chest just to get one breath in, after a moment of struggling his body relaxed and was finally able to breathe. A sudden flare of pain erupted from his chest. Blinded, he stumbles to the bathroom and removes his shirt to see an angry scar across his chest from a little below his right collar bone to below his left pectoral. He stands in front of his mirror and stares at his chest, his right hand reaches to the abnormal scar to feel it. What the? How did… Lance begins to recall what happened in his dream. Lance stares at himself wide eyed when he remembers the dream. He felt tears run down his face as he sees flashes of all the blood, the people. He gasps when sees Coran’s child. Flaming orange hair, freckles, and ocean blue eyes that were dulled in terror and death.  
It dawned on Lance why sometimes Coran looked sadly at him. It wasn’t that Lance was making Coran upset, but that his eyes were the same color as his son’s and it brought back painful memories. Pidge once asked if Coran had anyone special when he lived on Altea and he jokingly replied and said King Alfor but his smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. Neither Pidge or Lance asked again because it was obvious that it was a painful question to answer. Remembering that, Lance felt awful and insensitive. He felt like running out of his room to search for Coran just to apologise. He wanted to do something, but that also meant he would have to tell Coran how he found out, and at the moment he wasn’t comfortable with anyone knowing he had died and started having this… interesting connection with Red.  
He grimaced when he realized he was digging his nails into his chest causing himself to bleed. Lance sighed to himself when he removes his hand and watches the blood swell and drip a little down his chest. He decides to take a clean cloth to clean instead of just watching it bleed. As he is cleaning the wound he turns his head to look into his bedroom. He notices that his comforter was thrown onto the floor, probably from the rushed excursion to the bathroom when he woke up in a panic. Lance picks up his nightshirt and throws it, along with the cloth, into the laundry shoot before walking into his room to straighten up his bed. Once his bed was made, he puts on his paladin armor then leaves to head to the red lion hanger.

 

Visibly still in thought, he didn’t notice Pidge or Hunk walking in his direction and almost bumps into them. Startled, he looks up and finally notices them.  
“Huh? Oh! Hey, guys. Sorry, I was lost in thought. Where are you guys headed?” Honestly, Lance didn’t really care where they were going at the moment, he had other priorities at the moment. One of them being, speaking to Red uninterrupted and trying to figure out the flashback situation.  
“We are heading to the main hanger because Allura and Lotor are working on the new ships without Hunk and I, and we are the main engineers. So we are gonna see if they need any help,” Pidge said, “do you want to come with?” They younger paladin looked like she was observing Lance under a microscope to see how he would react to this invitation. Lance knew better and didn’t fall for it, all he did was shrug and continued walking to the Red Lion hanger.  
“Nah, I think I’ll pass. Red and I have some scheduled bonding time to do. And anyway, I only have basic knowledge on engineering, why would I go and see if I could help? Why don’t you ask Shiro, he would be much better help than I would be. Because, ya know, he did take engineering classes when he went to the Garrison.” Lance could almost hear Red snort in his head, and it made him smirk. Lance also knew this wasn’t the response that Pidge was looking for and it made him feel thoroughly satisfied.  
Maybe in another timeline he would have went with them and he probably would have made a fool of himself. Also maybe in that same timeline, Allura might not even know of Lance’s feelings yet and he would have to watch Allura and Lotor fluff it up, but this Lance wasn’t in that timeline. And he wasn’t Slav, so he didn’t spontaneously combust whenever he thought of other timelines. Not that he ever thinks of them in the first place.  
Lance heard a vague ‘whatever’ from Pidge as they walked away from each other. ‘You are growing, Lance. Two movements ago and you would have walked right into that kind of set up from the Green Paladin. But, I am also assuming that at this point her provocation did not mean anything to you because you have other things on your mind? Is that correct to assume so?’ Listening to the the Red Lion’s words, Lance’s smirk grew into a smile. Red knows him so well and it’s only getting better with how their relationship is progressing. But that smile fell and the mood went cold and heavy.  
The memories are still playing in his head over and over, like a broken reel. He felt them, he felt all what King Alfor was feeling and if he was honest with himself, they were familiar. Not everything of course, but the willingness to protect at the expense of one’s own life, that is what is familiar. Lance looked down at his hands and he saw blood. He almost panicked but when he looked again the blood was gone. What more memories is he going to have?  
He continued walking the long corridors until he made it to the red hanger. When he walked in and made eye contact with Red he almost relaxed. Dozens of bodies appeared before him, all sprawled out and bloody on the floor. He gasped in surprise and gagged at the smell of rotting blood. He wanted to run away from all the carnage but tripped and fell. All the dead Alteans seemed to animate and shift towards him but didn’t do anything more than that. They seemed content with just watching him with their cold, vacant eyes. Lance wanted to scream and call for help but he knew this was a hallucination created by stress but that didn’t make the situation any less chilling.  
So he decided to try to remember their faces. Morbid, yes but he felt it necessary. It helped him stay calm in this messed up, down-right crazy circumstance. Until his breathing and heart rate slowed he stayed sitting down. Counting how many children there were, adults, males, females. Forty-five doboshes later, his physiological state was back to normal and his knowledge on how many Alteans were slain here without mercy went up.  
Thirty-seven. Thirty-seven was the number of bodies that were in this room dead, and Lance made sure to remember all of them. When he looked up to see where the queen was, they made eye contact. He saw tears roll down her face and a smile reach her lips. He smiled back. Nothing about this felt false, almost like a memory, fleeting but not quite. He watched her stand gracefully and everything about her seemed to reverse. Her body was no longer bloodied and crippled but beautiful and flourishing with life. And everyone else seemed to follow suit. He wanted to stand as well but all he could manage was to kneel. He watched her walk towards him in a elegant poise befitting of a queen and when she reached him he could feel her kindness in her eyes. She placed both of her hands gently on either side of his face and brought her lips to his forehead and kissed him. And then she and the rest of the Alteans were gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeahhhhhh. This chapter was so difficult to write. I had to pull so much effort into writing it and I still think I could have done better. But I can always edit it later. Oh well. Anyway, what is your opinion on this chapter? I was going for a tear jerker, at least a little bit. And I wanted to get to know King Alfor a little bit more. Buuut, maybe I failed. idk. Anyway, leave your comments down below, and if you want to send me a private message just message me on IG. My pen name is the same as my username.
> 
> *edit* so idk why my "works" are showing up completed... it's not... I'm trying to figure out how to change it. I apologize for the misconception of this being complete. welp, to those who thought it was, sorry but I hope you will stay with me on this journey. And to those who have been with me since the start, thank you!
> 
>  
> 
> And I know I left off on a bit of a cliff hanger, but I will continue off on this bit in the next chapter. And I love Slav. I love fan art, if someone knows (or makes) a cell phone wallpaper of Slav I will love you forever.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, let me know how this work is. I would love to hear from you guys! If you have any ideas for another work, let me know. Here are some of my ideas for the future when I actually get to writing it:  
> -Magic Kaito Voltron AU  
> -Jack the Ripper Voltron AU  
> -Modern Bar AU
> 
> if you think these are good ideas, feel free to vote on it! I'd love to see your opinions!  
> Love,  
> Grey


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